Affiliation:
1. Institute of Molecular Biosciences, Massey University, Private Bag 11222, Palmerston North, New Zealand
Abstract
ABSTRACT
The function of
pslD
, which is part of the
psl
operon from
Pseudomonas aeruginosa
, was investigated in this study. The
psl
operon is involved in exopolysaccharide biosynthesis and biofilm formation. An isogenic marker-free
pslD
deletion mutant of
P. aeruginosa
PAO1 which was deficient in the formation of differentiated biofilms was generated. Expression of only the
pslD
gene coding region restored the wild-type phenotype. A C-terminal, hexahistidine tag fusion enabled the identification of PslD. LacZ and PhoA translational fusions with PslD indicated that PslD is a secreted protein required for biofilm formation, presumably via its role in exopolysaccharide export.
Publisher
American Society for Microbiology
Subject
Ecology,Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology,Food Science,Biotechnology